“In a sense, they’ve decoupled already,” Soskis said. It's hard to say which, if either of them, is more influential. And, in 2015, Melinda Gates founded Pivotal Ventures, which focuses on helping women and families in the United States. Since 2008, Bill Gates has had Gates Ventures. “All three prongs have been met in this case.”Īt the same time, some experts note that for years the Gateses have each pursued their own interests within the foundation as well as their own separate investment funds. “Both spouses need to know about it, both spouses need to agree and the commitment needs to have happened prior, and not on the heels of the divorce,” Moss said. Though questions have circulated about how the divorce might affect the couple’s pledge to donate a majority of their wealth to the foundation, Susan Moss, a New York-based divorce attorney who has worked with high net-worth clients, says that shouldn’t be a concern.
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permanentlyīecause the foundation has been a long-established entity with a large professional staff, experts say any changes that might happen because of the divorce would likely be incremental and happen over an extended period.
READ MORE: Microsoft to let some staffers work remotely. “The fact that we don’t really know the long term ramifications of this divorce on the foundation just highlights the fact that we are too reliant as a society on the whims of wealthy people when it comes to voluntarily distributing their excess wealth.” “People do fear that when a divorce like this happens, it can really emphasise the volatility surrounding private giving and the fact that private giving is so contingent on the whims of a couple,” McGoey said. When the British hedge fund billionaire Chris Hohn and his wife, Jamie Cooper, divorced in 2013, it resulted in management problems at their charity, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
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Linsey McGoey, author of “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy,” suggested that the philanthropy world is most likely concerned about the divorce in part because past such marital breakups have sometimes caused disruptive changes at foundations. READ MORE: Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board It was also key in forming Covax, a global program to help supply vaccines to the poorest countries.ĭespite such assurances, some say they worry that the split could shake up the foundation’s plans. Last year, it donated $1 billion to combat Covid-19 through administering vaccines. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of nearly $50 billion, donates about $5 billion annually to causes around the world.
“They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues and set the organisation’s overall direction,” the foundation said. In a statement after the Gateses announced their divorce on Twitter on Monday, the foundation said the two would remain co-chairs and trustees and that no changes in the organisation were planned.
The shock announcement that billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates are to divorce after 27 years of marriage has raised questions about the future of their hugely influential charity. Philanthropists Bill Gates (R) and Melinda Gates (L) prior to being awarded Commanders of the Legion of Honor at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on April 21, 2017. The foundation says it has spent $54.8 billion since 2000 on malaria, polio, ebola and other programmes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of nearly $50 billion, donates some $5 billion annually to global causes.
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